“Some would argue that a
mandate to include women is some sort of a weight, restriction or even
censorship placed on the writer, but there’s nothing challenging about adding
women (or anyone else) to a screenplay: just
make some characters women. There’s no reason gender
should upset whatever narrative is pictured with radical revisions unless
that narrative is inherently sexist. Hell, writers could just leave the genders
(and race and sexuality etc. etc.) of their characters nondescript and leave it
up to the casting director to find an actor whose personality or take on the
character matches up with what’s on the page. The original 'Alien'
was cast this way, a decision which eventually resulted in one of the most
celebrated female sci-fi and fantasy characters of all time.”

“What’s dismaying about Louis C.K.’s anti-Common
Core rant is that he is neither a shill for the unions nor a far-left
conspiracy theorist who thinks that Education Secretary Arne Duncan (and perhaps
the president himself!) is in the pocket of Pearson and the Princeton Review.
He is, instead, a New York City public school parent who has the ears and
eyeballs of millions across the nation, not to mention his 3 million Twitter
followers. And he has used that bully pulpit to malign an earnest effort at
education reform, one that is far too young to be judged so harshly.”

3.

“In his ‘10 Questions to President of Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto from Mexican Citizen Alfonso Cuarón,’ as the letter is
titled, the filmmaker explains why he decided to write the president: In a
TV interview in February, Peña Nieto said that Cuarón’s opposition to the
energy reform was the result of disinformation or lack of information. ‘If I am
not sufficiently informed, it is because the government you lead has not shared
with me—with all of us Mexicans—crucial elements that are necessary for us to
understand ‘the extent and significance of these reforms,’’ he replied.”

4.

“Theodore's co-worker says Theo is half man/half woman
but is quick to add that he means it as a compliment. He later jokes about how
‘evolved’ Theodore is, after they give contrasting opinions on their
girlfriends (co-worker digs his girl's feet; Theodore's answer is more about
his girl's... soul?) Elsewhere, Theodore’s ex-wife says, with a laugh,
‘Everything makes you cry’—which it might be sexist to describe as a feminine
trait, but that's the way it's become coded in pop movie history. This movie is
realistic and romantic. Theodore's co-worker is a faint echo of the kind of
blustery guy-guy we're used to seeing in that role. He's oblivious to who
Theodore really is at first (which jibes with your bubble observation), but he
is mindful, too. The gesture of reassuring Theodore that what could be taken as
a dis was meant as a sincere compliment is small but huge.”

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5.

“Depp has never given us a
truly amazing performance on par with the best of Cruise’s work or even Cage in
films like ‘Adaptation,’
‘Leaving Las
Vegas,’ or the recent ‘Joe.’ This is why his bad stuff feels so, so
bad—it just doesn’t feel like he’s earned the right to deliver mediocrity and
outright s—ttiness, and for what? Because our moms used to plaster his poster
on their walls? It doesn’t feel like prancing around in a pirate costume doing
a knock-off Keith Richards impression for four movies makes him a great actor.
Even Keith Richards earned his swagger through making some of the greatest
music in history and some pretty hard living. Depp just threw on some eyeliner
and a bad accent and called it acting.”

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